* Jane Avril was the extremely thin can-can dancer made famous by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec through his paintings. Nicknamed La Mélinite after an explosive ― because she was "given to jerky movements and sudden contortions" ― Avril had a detonative Mars-Pluto conjunction straddling her Descendant with Pluto opposite and ruling her Scorpio Ascendant. Nicole Kidman, the Australian actor nominated for an Oscar for her semi-fictionalized portayal of Avril in Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical,Moulin Rouge!, also has a Gemini Sun and Scorpio rising.
Jane Avril's mother was a courtesan and her absent father, allegedly, was a foreign aristocrat. Abused as a child, she ran away from home, and was eventually admitted to the Salpêtrière Hospital, with the movement disorder 'St Vitus' Dance' (now thought to be Sydenham's Chorea). Under the care of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, the expert on "female hysterics" she received various kinds of treatment, and claimed in her biography that, when she discovered dance at a social dance for employees and patients at the hospital, she was cured. On leaving the hospital, after a failed romance, Jeanne thought to kill herself, but was taken in by the Madame of a Parisian brothel.
Working at whatever day jobs were available, at night she pursued a career in dancing by performing at local clubs. Using the stage name Jane Avril, she built a reputation that eventually allowed her to make a living as a full-time dancer. Hired by the Moulin Rouge nightclub in 1889, within a few years she headlined at the Jardin de Paris, one of the major café-concerts on the Champs-Élysées. To advertise the extravaganza, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted her portrait on a poster that elevated her stature in the entertainment world even further.
In 1895, the owners of the Moulin Rouge offered her a great deal of money to take on the risky task of replacing Louise Weber, the most famous dancer in Paris, known by her stage name as "La Goulue". Graceful, soft-spoken, and melancholic, Jane Avril gave a dance presentation that was the opposite of the very boisterous La Goulue. Nevertheless, the club's patrons adored her and she became one of the most recognizable names of the Parisian nightlife.
A woman of intelligence and with a sense of aloof grace, at age 42 she met and married the German artist, Maurice Biais (c.1875–1926), and the couple moved to a home in Jouy-en-Josas at the outskirts of Paris. However, her husband soon began to stray, often disappearing for days at a time, and for years she lived a miserable existence with the irresponsible Biais. Without any financial support following his death in 1926, Avril lived in near poverty on what little was left of her savings.
Jane Avril died in a seniors' home in 1943 at the age of 75. She was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Read more from her Wikipedia biography.
NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART
BIRTH DATA: Jeanne Louise Beaudon, 9 June 1868, 17:00 (5 p.m.) LMT (-0:09:20), Paris, France (48n52, 02e20). ASC: 15 Scorpio. RR: AA (from birth record). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes birth certificate no. 1485 at the Paris archives, 20e arron. Her marriage to Maurice Biais is recorded in the margin.
If you're enjoying these posts please consider making a donation by Paypal. Thanks.
These blog posts and emails are for private recipients only. If it comes to your attention that these posts are being transferred to public media such as a mailing list or website then please notify us.
Copyright Sy Scholfield. All rights reserved in all media.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep your comments relevant to the fields of astrology and astrodata collecting.
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.